November 10, 1940 –Joseph P. Kennedy is quoted in the Boston Globe, saying, "Democracy is finished in England. It may be here." This is widely acknowledged as ending his previously high chances for the presidency.
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NASA Sputnik 1 Replica |
October 4, 1957 – Sputnik is launched, becoming the first man-made object to orbit the earth, and giving the Russians a victory in the first battle of the "space race."
November 3, 1957 – Sputnik 2 becomes the second spacecraft launched into Earth’s orbit and the first to carry a living animal, a dog named Laika.
January 1, 1959 – Fidel Castro seizes power in Havana. One of his first acts is to shut down the mafia-run casinos, including those of Sam Giancana. Castro reopens the casinos to foreign tourists in February, only to close them permanently in September, 1961.
July 24, 1959 - At the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow, an impromptu debate – later dubbed the Kitchen Debate - erupts between then Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Union Premier Nikita Khrushchev over the benefits of their differing political systems. The debate occurs in the kitchen of a model home exhibitors claim any American can afford.
September 15, 1959 - Khrushchev arrives in the United States for a visit, during which he meets Frank Sinatra, gets denied a visit to Disneyland, and tours the set of Can-Can, which he later notes contains dancing that "cannot be considered quite decent."
January 14, 1960 – The Army promotes Elvis Presley to Sergeant.
February, 1960 –Khrushchev sends a deputy to Cuba to investigate
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Fidel Castro with
Nikita Khrushchev |
Fidel Castro, and the two countries establish a five-year trade agreement. This occurs after Castro has been snubbed by President Eisenhower in a visit to the U.S.
February 13, 1960 - France becomes the fourth country to test an independently developed nuclear weapon, doing so in the Algerian Sahara.
March 8, 1960 – John F. Kennedy wins the New Hampshire Democratic primary with 85% of the vote.
March 15, 1960 – Ten nations meet to discuss disarmament. The Soviet bloc is cool to the Western plan. In a later June meeting, Khrushchev storms out, blaming the U.S.
April 5, 1960 – Kennedy wins the Wisconsin primary, the second of the presidential campaign, receiving 56.5% of the vote to Hubert H. Humphrey’s 43.5%.
April 12, 1960 –Kennedy wins the Illinois primary with 65% of the vote to Adlai Stevenson’s 15%.
May 10, 1960 –Kennedy wins the West Virginia primary, receiving 61% to Humphrey’s 39%.
June 23, 1960 – The FDA approves the use of Enovid as the first oral contraceptive pill. It was used for the same purpose prior to this date, though had only been FDA-approved for menstrual regulation.
October 12, 1960 – Khrushchev bangs his shoe on the table in a show of fury during a meeting of the U.N. General Assembly.
April 12, 1961 – Yuri Gagarin, of the U.S.S.R., becomes the first human to travel into space in Vostok 1.
May 5, 1961– Alan Shepard becomes the second person and the first American in space in Freedom 7.
July 2, 1961 – Ernest Hemingway shoots himself in the head with a shotgun at his home in Ketchum, Idaho.
May 10, 1960 – Kennedy wins the West Virginia primary with 61% of the vote to Humphrey’s 39%.
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The Kennedy Inauguration |
September 26, 1960 – The first general election U.S. presidential debate is held. The conventional wisdom is that television audiences believed Kennedy won while radio audiences preferred Nixon.
November 8, 1960 – Kennedy defeats Nixon in one of the closest presidential election in history. The outcome is uncertain late into the morning of November 9 as officials wait for all the votes to be counted.
November 25, 1960 – John F. Kennedy, Jr. is born.
January 20, 1961 – Kennedy is sworn in as president. The inaugural address includes perhaps his most famous quote: "And so my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country."
April 17-19, 1961 - A U.S.-trained force of Cuban exiles attempts an unsuccessful invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs in order to overthrow the Fidel Castro. Planning for the invasion had begun in 1960, before Kennedy took office.
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| Kennedy and Khrushchev at the Vienna Summit |
June 4, 1961 – Kennedy and Khrushchev meet for the first time at a summit conference in Vienna. Both men strive to project strength, but Kennedy does not feel it goes well, later calling it "the roughest thing in my life."
September 15, 1961 – Life magazine features a man in a "civilian fallout suit" on its cover and touts "A Letter to You from President Kennedy" about the value of bomb shelters.
December 19, 1961 – Joseph P. Kennedy suffers a stroke. He survives, but loses the ability to speak and is paralyzed on his right side.
February 20, 1962 – John Glenn becomes the third American in space a
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John Glenn aboard
the Friendship 7 |
nd the first to orbit the Earth, aboard Friendship 7.
May 19, 1962 – Marilyn Monroe sings "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" to John F. Kennedy at a celebration for his 45th birthday at Madison Square Garden.
May 31, 1962 – Adolf Eichman, widely known as "the architect of the Holocaust," is hanged in Israel for crimes against humanity and war crimes. Prior to this, he had been in hiding in Argentina until captured by the Israeli Mossad.
August 5, 1962– Marilyn Monroe dies from a drug overdose in what is controversially called a "probable suicide."
October 14, 1962 - United States reconnaissance photographs taken by an American U-2 spy plane reveal missile bases being built in Cuba, escalating the Cuban Missile Crisis. The crisis is not resolved until the United States reaches an agreement with the Soviets on October 28.
June 11, 1963 – A Vietnamese Buddhist monk burns himself to death protesting the persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government.
